Neither
France nor the US has learned from the Afghanistan War that aerial
warfare won’t defeat al Qaeda – certainly not when they are
highly-trained in special forces tactics and backed by mobile,
well-armed local militias highly-trained in special forces tactics and
backed by mobile, well-armed local militias with advanced anti-aircraft
weapons. Those militias are Touareg tribesmen, trained and armed by the
US as a spearhead against al Qaeda in Africa, who instead defected to
the enemy. Read more

Israel to open exhibit on biblical King Herod
Israel's
national museum said Tuesday it will open what it calls the world's
first exhibition devoted to the architectural legacy of biblical King
Herod, the Jewish proxy monarch who ruled Jerusalem and the Holy Land
under Roman occupation two millennia ago.
The display includes the reconstructed tomb and sarcophagus of one of
antiquity's most notable and despised figures, curators say.

First Shots Are Fired in Global 'Currency War'
Japan
has set the stage for a potential global currency war, announcing plans
to create money and buy bonds as the government of Prime Minister
Shinzo Abe looks to stimulate the moribund growth pace.

Bundesbank to pull gold from New York and Paris in watershed moment
The
move marks an extraodinary breakdown in trust between leading central
banks and has set off ferment among gold enthusiasts, with some
comparing it with France’s withdrawal of gold from the US under
President Charles de Gaulle as the Bretton Woods currency system
crumbled in the late 1960s.

The Islamization of France in 2012
Muslim
immigrants and their supporters have been using a combination of
lawsuits, verbal and physical harassment -- and even murder -- to
silence debate about the rise of Islam. Opinion surveys show that to
voters in France -- home to an estimated 6.5 million Muslims, the
largest Muslim population in the European Union -- Islam and the
question of Muslim immigration have emerged in 2012 as a top-ranked
public concern. The French, it seems, are increasingly worried about the
establishment of a parallel Muslim society there.

Exclusive: Secret State Department cable: Chemical weapons used in Syria
A
secret State Department cable has concluded that the Syrian military
likely used chemical weapons against its own people...last month...
United States diplomats in Turkey conducted a...intensive investigation
into claims that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad used chemical weapons,
and made...a "compelling case" that Assad's military forces had used a
deadly form of poison gas.

Israel advances settlement plans after alleged Obama rebuke
The
Housing and Construction Ministry issued tenders for some 200 new
housing units in the West Bank on Wednesday, a day after a US columnist
released comments allegedly made by US President Barack Obama in which
the American leader harshly criticized Prime Minister Binyamin
Netanayahu's settlement policies.

A different Israel after January 22
Sixty-five
years after those who spoke for the local Arabs rejected a Jewish
state, this will likely be an Israel that has voted to reject a
Palestinian state — prompted by a combination of the Palestinians’
intransigence, doubletalk, hostility and terrorism, and of Israeli Jews’
security fears, historic connection and sense of religious obligation.

'Obama: Israel doesn't Know What's Good for It'
When
informed about the Israeli decision to approve construction plans in
the E1 area, "Obama, who has a famously contentious relationship with
the prime minister, didn’t even bother getting angry," wrote Goldberg.
"He told several people that this sort of behavior on Netanyahu’s part
is what he has come to expect, and he suggested that he has become
inured to what he sees as self-defeating policies of his Israeli
counterpart. "In the weeks after the UN vote, Obama said privately and
repeatedly, 'Israel doesn’t know what its own best interests are.'